What if you had the power of another employee in your office … for free? Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but what if the work in your office could be augmented by artificial intelligence with no additional cost? I hadn’t found a good resource on how AI could be used in K-12 technology offices, so I figured I’d compile some resources on how we can add value to our workflows.
Basic Helpdesk
When an end user reaches out, do you take the task on yourself, or can you delegate it to AI? I go over the help desk support system yearly with all of my district’s new teachers and offer general technology refreshers to our returning staff. I ask them to use the rule of three before me. In other words, can you try three resources before reaching out to the tech department? Often that is Google, another teacher, and maybe their librarian. Now let ChatGPT enter the mix. Chances are, it will help them with their issue much better than Google or a fellow teacher.
Down the road, I’d like to begin integrating AI language models into our helpdesk itself. I asked ChatGPT to help me integrate it into my helpdesk chat software. Here’s what I got.
ChatGPT can be integrated into IT helpdesk software to provide automated responses to common IT issues and queries. Here are the steps to integrate ChatGPT into an IT helpdesk software:
- Determine the scope of ChatGPT’s integration: Identify the types of IT issues that ChatGPT will be able to handle and the level of integration required with the IT helpdesk software.
- Choose a suitable integration method: There are different ways to integrate ChatGPT into IT helpdesk software, such as through APIs or webhooks. Determine the most suitable integration method based on your IT helpdesk software’s architecture and requirements.
- Train ChatGPT: To provide accurate and relevant responses, ChatGPT needs to be trained with IT-related knowledge and terminology. You can train ChatGPT with your existing IT helpdesk knowledge base, FAQs, and previous customer interactions.
- Set up the conversation flow: Determine the conversation flow between ChatGPT and the customer. This includes identifying the types of questions that ChatGPT can answer and when to escalate the conversation to a human agent.
- Test and refine: Test the integration thoroughly to ensure that ChatGPT provides accurate and relevant responses. Refine ChatGPT’s responses based on customer feedback and continuously train it with new information.
I’m not sure if it will truly work, but the main idea here is to train ChatGPT on your technical documents then use it to provide human-like interactions.
Complex Troubleshooting and Configuration
When I first took my job in school tech, I liked to say that I didn’t know much but I was good at Google. The next generation of that is being able to use AI language models to assist us in complex configurations and troubleshooting. In the realm of configuration, I’ve used ChatGPT multiple times within the past week to help with a VLAN configuration. I just typed the model of switch in and asked for it to provide a configuration suggestion for an ACL on a VLAN. And voila, it was there.
With regards to troubleshooting, you just need to tell the language model what the problem is and it will suggest possible solutions. For example, an end user reaches out saying that they are getting a “no internet connection” error when viewing their network configuration. Tell ChatGPT, and it will spit out five to 10 suggestions of what to check on your back end. This can equip a low-level tech in the field to quickly resolve an issue or free up the tier 2 or 3 from having to answer the ticket.
Office Communications
AI can cut your communication drafting workload in half. Just this week I had it draft a paragraph communication to families about our end-of-year device collection procedures. I just entered some key words, and AI did the rest.
Input:
Kindergarten through 4th grade, devices collected the last week of school.
Seniors devices collected on May 12.
5th through 11th grade will keep their devices over summer.
Draft a letter to parents to inform them of these procedures in one paragraph.
ChatGPT Output:
Dear Parents/Guardians, as we approach the end of the school year, we want to inform you of our device collection procedures. Kindergarten through 4th grade devices will be collected during the last week of school, while seniors’ devices will be collected on May 12. 5th through 11th grade students will keep their devices over summer, but we encourage educational use only and remind families to take care of the devices. We appreciate your cooperation in ensuring their proper return, and please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns. Thank you for your continued support and partnership.
This can be used in so many applications to improve communication from your office to staff, students, and families. In addition to generating communication, ChatGPT can also be used to edit your communication. Just drop your text into the field and ask it to find grammatical errors. You’ll be surprised at what it can do.
Scripting
AI can also be used to generate scripts based on specific criteria, helping automate routine tasks and processes. Give it a shot; it can even write a PowerShell script. But be sure to review the output before running the script. Small mistakes can have big consequences.
Learning Concepts
Many point to the benefits of what AI can do to reduce your task load, but it should also be viewed as a really good tool to enhance your own learning. Try asking it to explain the OSI model to you as if you were a fifth grader. It will break down the model for you expertly. I stumbled upon a prompt this morning that stuck with me. Ask ChatGPT to explain 20% of the concepts that will allow you to learn 80% of it. Wow. Or ask ChatGPT to create a learning plan for you that will help you master a concept from beginner to expert in X amount of days. Just wow. And it really works.
Generative AI has the potential to add a lot of value to our offices. We run the risk of falling behind if we don’t properly integrate these tools into our daily workflows to make ourselves more productive and efficient than ever.
Are any of you ahead of the curve with realizing the benefits of AI in your offices? We’d love to hear about it here or in the K12TechPro community.